Plastic utility drawer



May 1, 1962 J. BORO PLASTIC UTILITY DRAWER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug.31, 1960 85 e32 sz IN V EN TOR.

BORO

\JERRY 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. d ERRY BORO BY May 1, 1962 J. BOROPLASTIC UTILITY DRAWER Filed Aug. 31, 1960 United States This inventionconcerns a garment storage chest, and particularly is directed at aplastic storage chest including a solid, one piece frame adapted forstacking with other similar frames, with a drawer removably disposed ineach frame.

One object of the invention is therefore to provide a unit for a storagechest including a one-piece molded, transparent plastic frame and aone-piece molded, transparent plastic drawer, the drawer being adaptedto receive one or more partitions or dividers to form a plurality ofcompartments therein.

A further object is to provide a garment storage chest including aplurality of stacked units having interfitting projections on adjacentsides so that the units are interlocked but readily removable one fromthe other.

A still further object is to provide a garment storage chest of thecharacter described with a slidable plastic drawer for each unit, eachdrawer being provided with internal projections for receivingpartitions.

For further comprehension of the invention, and of the objects andadvantages thereof, reference will be had to the following descriptionand accompanying drawings, and to the appended claim in which thevarious novel features of the invention are more particularly set forth.

In the accompanying drawings forming a material part of this disclosure:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a chest of drawers embodying theinvention.

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the chest of drawers, one drawerbeing shown partly open.

FIG. 3 is a bottom plan view of the chest shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the chest shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view on an enlarged scale showing oneinterlocking arrangement of elements, taken on line 55 of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary view on an enlarged scale showing anotherinterlocking arrangement of elements, taken on line 66 of FIG. 4.

FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view of one unit of the chestincluding frame, drawer and partitions.

FIG. 8 is a top plan view of a drawer with partitions mounted therein.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken on line 9--9 of FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is a side elevational view of the drawer taken on line 1010 ofFIG. 8.

FIG. 11 is a bottom plan view of the drawer.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown in FIGS. 1-4, a chest 20including a plurality of stacked units 22. Each unit includes aone-piece molded plastic box-like frame 29 having a flat bottom plate 23formed with generally rectangular openings 24, 25; see FIGS. 3 and 7.Between openings 24, 25 is a central web 28, and a rectangular marginalframe 30. Underneath the four corners of the frame 30 are four pairs ofspaced parallel short projections 32. At the two ends of web 28 are twoV-shaped projections 34, 36 disposed with their apices adjacent thefront and back ends of the bottom plate 23. A central ridge 38 extendslongitudinally of the web 28 between the V-shaped projections. Tworidges 40, 42 are disposed at outer marginal edges underneath plate 23.

The frame 29 has a top plate 21 integrally formed with an intersectingarray of V-shaped ridges 44, 46 on the top of the plate. The arms of theprojecting ridges interatcnt HCQ sect at 48 and 49. Apex 50 of ridge 44is located at the center of the back edge of the plate 21; see FIGS. 4and 7. Apex 51 of ridge 46 is located at the center of the front edge ofthe plate 21 where it is connected to a straight ridge 52 extendingacross the front edge of the plate 21.

The frame 29 has rectangular side plates 31, 33 formed with rectangularopenings 35, 37. The rear and front ends of the frame are open. Adepending short bar 39 is disposed in the rear opening between sideplates 31, 33, as best shown in FIG. 1.

When the frames are nested to form a stack as shown in FIGS. l4, thenthe V-shaped projections 34, 36 fit within the apices 50 and 51 ofridges 44, 46; see FIG. 5. At the same time the arms of each of ridges44, 46 are disposed between the several pairs of projections 32; seeFIGS. 4 and 6. The several units are thus held in a vertical stack oneupon the other and are prevented by the interlocking ridges andprojections from moving horizontally with respect to each other. Theunits can, however, be lifted readily off of one another.

Each unit 22 includes one drawer 60 in the frame 29. The drawer, asclearly shown in FIGS. l-4 and 7-10, is a one-piece, rectangular-shapedopen-top plastic body having a flat bottom plate 62, front wall 63, rearwall 64 and side walls 65, 66 all integrally joined to each other. Onthe front and rear walls 63, 64 are pairs of spaced vertical ridges 68,69, respectively, adapted to slidably receive the end of the partitions70-72 so as to divide the interior of the drawer into four compartments.If desired, only one or two partitions instead of all three may bedisposed in the drawer. Ridges 74 and 76 in pairs may be provided on theside walls for receiving the ends of a partition in transversedisposition across the drawer as indicated by dotted lines in FIGS. 7and 8, to form two compartments in the drawer. When partition 75 is usedthen partitions 7(l72 will be omitted. The drawer, depending on thenumber and arrangement of partitions can thus be used to hold socks,shirts, sweaters, lingerie, accessories, etc. By providing a differentpartition arrangement in each drawer, the chest 20 may be adapted forany desired household storage use. Spaced parallel ridges 8082 underbottom wall 62 slide on the bottom plate 23 of the frame.

The frames, drawers and partitions are all preferably formed of rigid,transparent plastic material to provide the user with a full view of thechest contents at all times. A handle '85 is integral with the frontwall of each drawer.

In FIGS. 1-4, the lowermost frame is shown alone without a drawer. Thisframe will receive a drawer 60 such as shown in the other frames.

If desired, a single unit may be used alone as a storage chest. The usermay then add on units one at a time whenever required to increase thecapacity of the storage chest.

While I have illustrated and described the preferred embodiment of myinvention, it is to be understood that I do not limit myself to theprecise constructions herein disclosed and that various changes andmodifications may be made within the scope of the invention as definedin the appended claim.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by United States Letters Patent 1s:

A sectional container comprising a sectional body adapted to be stacked,consisting of a hollow frame and a drawer slidably mounted therein, saidframe constituting a box-like structure having top, bottom and sidewalls, said bottom and side walls havin openings therein,

crossed ridges on the top surface of the top wall forming apices,projections on the outer surface of the bottom wall, said projectionsincluding opposed V-shaped devices at the ends of the wall centrallythereof, an elongated ridge betweensaid devices, and pairs of closelyspaced short protuberances at the corners thereof, said V-shaped devicesadapted to interlock with the apices of the ridges and the bodies of theridges adapted to interlock with the corner protuberances when two ofsaid containers are superimposed with said top and bottom Walls incontact to interlock said superimposed containers and prevent lateralhorizontal displacement thereof, said superimposed containers beingseparable vertically.

UNITED STATES PATENTS Vannice May 31, 1960 Lehmann Sept. 29, 1891Fitzpatrick Dec. 15, 1925 Meyer Aug. 23, 1938 Gould May 9, 1939 SmithMay 9, 1950 Moore Sept. 4, 1956 Brooks Oct. 29, 1957 Todd Dec. 13, 1960

